An Evening of Poetry with Dana Gioia

Dana Gioia is an internationally renowned poet, writer, and essayist, and is a central figure in the revival of rhyme, meter, and narrative in contemporary poetry. He has published five full length collections of verse and four books of essays, and has edited or co-edited twenty-four best-selling literary anthologies. His critiques, essays, and memoirs have been published across the English-speaking world, and his opera libretti have been set to music by numerous composers. Gioia served as the chairman for the National Endowment of the Arts from 2003-2009, receiving two unanimous confirmations by the U.S. Senate, and was the California State Poet Laureate from 2015-2019. His many awards include the Poets’ Prize for 99 Poems: New & Selected (2016), the American Book Award for Interrogations at Noon (2001), the Laetare Medal from Notre Dame, the Presidential Citizens’ Medal, the Aiken Taylor Award in Modern Poetry, and the Walt Whitman Champion of Literacy Prize. His volume, Can Poetry Matter (1992), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. A first-generation college graduate, Gioia holds master’s degrees from Harvard and Stanford Universities, and is the recipient of ten honorary doctorates.